This weather...

... is really tricking us again and again. For the third time we postponed a Friday day-trip to a close by national park due to the weather forecast just to see the blue skies and sun all the day. Next week, we will go for sure! Here are some nice pictures from Dennis, who enjoyed a rivercruise during the week. We also went to a concert of the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra playing Beethoven's second and third synphonie. A friend of a friend works in the Philharmony and could get tickets for free (normally $100). It was a perfect experience! We had a little box on the first level and really enjoyed the music. What a pity that the day was ruined by Alonso winning the Japanese Grand Prix later that night! ;-)

Strange feeling...

... when the plane crashed into the building on Thursday. I was sitting in my restructuring class and just saw the headline on CNN ten minutes after the plane crashed. I haven't heard about a plane crashing into a building within 5 years now and it is really strange that this happened in New York again. The first thoughts were clearly circling around terrorism and you could sense the tension and curiosness in the whole class. Nobody was listening to the professor who hadn't heard of anything. Everybody was just staring at the Laptop, clicking "refresh" every now and then to see the latest development. It was clear that it was not terror even before the class was over but nevertheless, people seemed to be very worried and sad.

Many Visitors...

... these days! Many friends paid me a visit and I am not talking about those imaginary people telling me always to buy more pizza and read cases, but real ones ;-). First, as i wrote on the blog last week, Daniel and David came over for a few days. Then Anne from Frankfurt had a stay-over with Lufthansa here in New York. And now, Dennis from Valencia is here just before Denis from North Carolina will arrive in two days. Further, the work load at NYU increased exponentially and everybody requires assignments, mid-terms and essays to be written. This week I have been to the Natural History Museum which was probably the best museum I have seen so far here in New York. The only disadvantage is its size. It is HUGE! There is no way you can read and see everything interesting within one day. I was a little bit puzzled by their extrapolation of world population growth in the next 50 years. If there numbers are right, there will be very little room for people on this planet in a cpuple of decades, when population numbers will pass 10, 20 and supposedly even 50 billion. Investments in real estate sound like a clever idea. I only saw a third of the museum and definitely have to go back soon. One very convenient fact is that they do not have a predefined entrance fee but a suggested contribution to their foundation. Theoretically you could just donate one cent to see the museum. Cheap education!

The Empire...

… State Building is where we went yesterday. We had the day off for the Jom Kippur weekend and the weather was once more beautiful for early October. So we lined up at 9:30 am at the tallest building in New York. Built in 1930 in just 14 months, the skyscraper consists of 10 million bricks, 500 miles of steel and 1,100 miles of telephone cables. The organizational flow was organized such that the steel came directly from the mill and was placed at its destiny while it was still warm. 73 elevators transport the 18,000 daily workers and 3.8 million annual tourists up the building. A weird feeling to go the first 80 floors in just one minute. It feels like a plane is starting. It takes three months for a team to clean all the windows. Though there was no students rebate, the 16 dollars were well invested! The view is amazing and all of a sudden New York seems to be much more under- standable and much smaller. We spent more than an hour up there and just then the wind started to get a little bit chilly and we started our descent. I wonder whether there is a seven summit club for the worlds highest buildings? ;-)

MoMA...

… was the program for Sunday. A little bit hangover, we lined up at the museum Sunday morning. Besides the other 2 million people who wanted to get in there at the same time, it were my two German friends, Daniel and David who went there with me. After seeing Reina Sofia, the Prado and Thyssen Bornemisza just a couple of months ago, I have to admit that the MoMA is definitely the best of the four. The “modern” is what I like about it. What is only one floor Reina Sofia, is basically the whole theme in the MoMA, the art starting in the late 19th century going until video installations and a light switch turning on and off the lights constantly. One of my favorites was definitely a tiny (real) helicopter hanging in the museum, some industrial “art” and design of the 60s and 70s and some pictures from Magritte and Klimt. For the third time, I was very, very impressed by the pictures of Yves Klein. Even though it is just monochrome blue for example, these picture seem to have so much energy! The four hours there were well invested and maybe I’ll come back here with some later visitors!

First visitors…

… Daniel and David, two of my friends from Solingen are just staying in New York for a five day short trip. They found a really cool offer putting them in a four start hotel at the cost of a youth hostel! I will spend some days with them exploring the city and talking about old times ;-). After a rainy walk to the museum, the sun came out later that day and gave us some pretty nice hours walking through Central Park, the Upper West Side and the Hudson River Park.

Coney Island...

... is where we went last weekend. Cedric wrote about it a couple of days ago. It is actually not a real island but the southern part of Brooklyn. It is like getting into the subway in New York and getting out just 40 mins later in a completely different world. This place reminds me more of a little town in the mid-west than a part of New York. The beach (which is contradicting the mid-west idea) is surprisingly clean but the water itself looks just like you would expect it to look flowing out of East and Hudson River. No swimming!! Besides the New York Aquarium (which was really good) Nathan's is the biggest attraction. This fast food restaurant does not only claim to have invented the hot dog they also host the annual hot dog eating contest (Trace???). In former years, I would have been easy even for me to win that competition as a smooth 15 to 20 hot dogs would have been enough to win. Then, all of a sudden in the late 90's, a Japanese guy comes along and eats 50 (yes, 50!!!) hot dogs. And he weights barely a third of what the average contestant at this competition weights. Strange! He won the contest now for seven consecutive years and there is no end in sight. His appetite is unlimited! On Coney Island, you can even buy videos of his "performance".

9/11...

... Many of you asked me ow it was to be here on 9/11. Well, it was ok. We had an even of NYU remembering not only the members of university that died that day but also those who were volunteering to help where ever they could. I didn't go down to the WTC site on that particular day but have been there a couple of times already. It is impressive and kind of depressing. But what strikes me most is what little goes on there. Taking into consideration that ground zero is in the heart of the city I as mayor or construction manager would do everything to get this scar away asap. But not really much goes on there! Funny though is this sign warning of blasts. A thing you would not expect in a city center! The pic above is one displayed at the site. I was impressed by the sheer panic in the eyes of the people. It is really a terrifying even now just to see these people and try to imagine what they might have felt on that particular day in this very moment. Since then, feelings for the event itself and the tragedy for many individuals haven't changed. But there is a movement questioning the source of this terror which tries to earmark the whole attacks as a conspiracy. Yeah, like the moonlanding you might say. Just another stupid conspiracy theory of people who don't know what else to do. But apparenty (according to the 'trustworthy' source www.youtube.com more than 36% of Americans question the official media coverage) it is something to be at least aware of. To be honest, I was shocked after watching THIS documentary! Check it out and tell me what you think!

Another Sunday in the park...

... where we enjoyed the magnificent weather. We found this place where you can do International Folk Dancing. And all for free! Plus, you meet some interesting people who can tell you stories out of their often 90+ years of life experience. I left Cedric there for the rest of the day where he made some new friends ;-). Later that day, I enjoyed Roosevelt Island which has nothing really to offer besides a funicular (--> Seilbahn) connecting it with Manhattan. Other than that its just a hospital and some big apartment blocks that drive people to this small island between Manhattan and Queens. After that, I picked up Cedric and we wanted to go for a boat tour on Hudson River. But apparently even in the city that never sleeps boats are leaving only until 3 pm (???). Doing the laundry in one of these nice washing centers where American politics seems to be made finished off a rather quiet weekend.

What to say...

... when being called on your mobile phone? Well, an easy question for Europeans, just as muchg as you want because its the caller who decided to call you so he is paying the bill and you don't have to bother whether he is calling from a landline or a mobile. It's different here in the States. Anybody who receives a call bears part of the costs. That means if the Off Campus Housing Center calls me from their landline to ask whether I still need the little yello card asking for accomodation (btw the firs call I ever received on that yellow card) which I put on their blackboard, I have to pay part of the calling fee. In this case 30 Cents! This screws up the business model of many, many firms that operate more or less successfully in Europe. What about these nasty telemarketing companies selling you lottery tickets? You say that there is an even better environment for them here as they do not have to pay the full costs? Not really true because a caller who doesn't want anything I want is not only wasting my time but here also my money. So I guess that unsolicited calls will trigger some nice lawsuits. It also changes the behavior on the phone ;-). Smalltalk is out. Get to the point! Tell me what you want and don't waste my time (Time = Money)!!! Mmmmhhhh, I think in this regard I have been americanized before! Best from New York to the rest of the world!

No business trash...

... I wonder whether that is ok? Well, as Cedric posted on his blog (see links) the city really has a waste problem! Even if you say "eat in" at my favorite coffee place (Coffee + Breakfast Burger (!) $ 1.75) they wrap it up in two bags. Just so that the incredible weight of a coffee and a burger really doesn't brake through the bag on the way to a table. Since a couple of months, New YOrkers are asked to seperate their waste, just for me to see the garbage collectors throw everything into the same truck. Well, we had that in Germany too, some 15 years ago ;-). Walking through New York in the morning is still quite ok but over the day more and more waste "mountains" pile up along the streets so that by late afternoon great parts of the sidewalk are covered by a cloud of not so appealing smells. It's like sitting next to Karim after an indian dinner!

A picnic in the park...

... Last weekend the sun finally came out for more than just 45 minutes and we went to Central Park for a really cool picnic. After just a ten minute walk from Broadway, you are in the midst of nothing. Almost forest-like, you can forget the city and all its hastiness for a few hours. We found a spot where just 3 or four other people were and it really felt great. If I only had some cases to read ;-). We had bread and Hummos (which I never had heard of --> apparently some mashed white peas) and some grapes afterwards. Mmmmmhhhh, New York rulez.